IGE Helps DRIHM Make Waves with Globus!

posted 13 May 2013, 01:21 by Matthias Hofmann

Getting to grips with using Grid technologies is often a tricky process, and IGE was keen to help the DRIHM project make successful use of Globus to assist their hydro-meteorological research. A Memorandum of Understanding between IGE and the DRIHM project, signed last October, set the scene for this close and productive collaboration.

Focused on providing DRIHM with access to IGE’s testbed, and assisting them with their investigations into adopting Globus technologies, the collaboration was very successful in providing the researchers with an efficient means to test their scientific applications before going into production. ‘IGE was very helpful to us,’ states Nils gentschen Felde from DRIHM. ‘The testbed was and is tremendously important to DRIHM, because hydro-meteorology scientists were confronted with completely new challenges while gridifying their applications’. Throughout the process, IGE provided technical support to smooth the transition to successful Globus gridification of their applications. Nils continues, ‘This helped in getting things to work and to carry out our initial simulation runs on Globus’.

A major barrier in getting scientists to use any Grid infrastructure is often security, and providing assistance in this area is key to success. IGE was also able to leverage its expertise in this area to establish a Virtual Organisation for the project, providing a scalable means for DRIHM to securely and efficiently access the testbed to test and run their applications. By also providing support in obtaining European accepted Grid certificates, IGE has assisted DRIHM members in their goals to access greater European resources, such as EGI and PRACE, in the future.

‘Assisting scientists to take advantage of Globus Grid infrastructure to conduct their research is what IGE has always been about,’ states Dr Helmut Heller, Project Director of IGE. ‘And our successful collaboration with DRIHM is a great example of what we’ve been able to accomplish throughout the IGE project. Through IGE’s successor, the European Globus Community Forum, we’ll continue to collaborate with DRIHM and many other projects well into the future’.